I love that there have been so many soup recipes posted lately! I was wondering if anyone had a lo carb recipe to the Zuppa Toscana that Olive Garden serves? I found a recipe on the internet and it looks as though everything is legal minus the potatoes. What would you use instead of the potatoes? By the way, here is the recipe I found.

Cook sausage in a 300 F oven for appoximately 30 minutes. Drain sausages on paper towels and cut into slices. Place onions, potatoes, chicken broth, water, garlic in pot, and cook on medium heat until potatoes are tender. Add the sausage and bacon. Salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for another 10 minutes. Turn to low heat. Add kale (or swiss chard) and cream. Heat through and serve.

Looks great, but without the potatoes and using cauliflower instead I don't think I'd use the "quart" of water. I think the potatoes sucked all that water up, especially since you already have chicken broth. Evil potatoes!

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My short-term goal is to reach 175 lbs. This is at a weight loss average of 1 lbs/week, which should be reached by February 29, 2012.

Beeb, I had to let you know that I came across the version of your Tuscano Soup recipe on LindaSue's site and I made it the other day. It was soooo yummy! My DH and I just finished it up yesterday for lunch, and I want to thank you for a very delicious and easy to make soup that has a taste that's out of this world!

-In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown sausage, breaking into small pieces as you fry it; drain, set aside.
-In a skillet over medium-high heat, brown bacon; drain, set aside.
Sauté onion and garlic and set aside.

-Place water, broth, veggies, garlic, and onion in a pot; simmer over medium heat until veggies are tender.
-Add sausage and bacon to pot; simmer for 10 minutes.
-Add cream to pot; season with salt and pepper; heat through.
arb

I think Linda Sue has pictures of it and posted here a few months ago.

It's like a large pear shape, but it is light green and a little wrinkled.
After peeling, it is white and then we slice it like apples and make spicy
apples slices using Splenda or other sugar subs, vanilla and cinnamon,
and cook it until tender. Since it's rather tasteless so when you put into
soups, it can be your 'potato' chunks. It's very good. I grated it and
added grated onion, salt and pepper an egg and a bit of Carbalose flour,
dash of baking powder and make "potato pancakes' and fried them
in oil. They cost between .99 each to about $1.29 each.

After simmer time, add the heavy cream and simmer for another 10 minutes, or until everything is nice and hot.

I posted my results in my journal so I figured I needed to paste them here too...

Quote:

I was thinking about the soup later after I put it up and I remembered that I left out a few details...

I added each ingredients 1 at a time. I browned the sausage first. Then cut up the onion into the pot when the sausage was almost brown. When the onions got soft I added the chicken broth. I would have used a full cup but I only had a little less than half a can so I went with what I had. Then I added the water. When that started simmering I added the steamed cauliflower and used a spoon to mash it into smaller pieces in the pot with the sausage and onions. Because the turkey sausage is not as flavorful as the pork version I added a dash of Italian seasoning to the mix as well. After stirring that in I then added the kale. The next time I will add the kale later because in the restaurant it's not really cooked down into the soup so I am guessing it is just used as a garnish. I was on the computer and let it all simmer for about 30 minutes which it was too long because the kale only takes a few minutes to cook and the cauliflower was already steamed. If I'd added the cauliflower in uncooked then I would have let it simmer that long. Anyway because of the long simmer the cauliflower was mostly desolved which made the soup really thick (yum). The last thing was the cream which I basically just drizzled around in a swirl until I figured it was a 1/2 cup but I don't think it actually was. This soup came out really thick so the next time I make this I will probably use a full cup of broth and 4 cups of water instead of 3 to thin it out and stretch it more.

Speaking of Olive Garden, I use to always love their Minestrone soup but couldnt eat it after I went LC. Anyway, I try to make some myself last weekend and I tell you it tasted very much like Olive Garden's. I just left out the beans and potatoes. I used vegetable broth and a can of puree'd tomoates. I sauteed some onion, adding celery, green beans, shredded carrots, zuccinni, squash and a little salt and pepper. The whole family loved it and it really hit the spot since it was especially cold and rainy last week.

Speaking of Olive Garden, I use to always love their Minestrone soup but couldnt eat it after I went LC. Anyway, I try to make some myself last weekend and I tell you it tasted very much like Olive Garden's. I just left out the beans and potatoes. I used vegetable broth and a can of puree'd tomoates. I sauteed some onion, adding celery, green beans, shredded carrots, zuccinni, squash and a little salt and pepper. The whole family loved it and it really hit the spot since it was especially cold and rainy last week.

Hmmm! That sounds good too. I may try that this weekend. Right now I am thinking about tweaking a seafood bisque recipe. The other soup at olive garden has pasta in it doesn't it? Probably won't be attempting that one.

My Mom and I are adopting the low carb way of life. I have had great success, but she is still very reluctant to try some of the substitutions. I do not usually like cauiliflower and am a little concerned with using it as a potato substitute, but I am willing to try just about anything once. She hates it and is refusing to even try it. So now I am looking for the squash to use and am having a difficult time locating it. Are there other names for the squash that can act as a potato substitute?

My Mom and I are adopting the low carb way of life. I have had great success, but she is still very reluctant to try some of the substitutions. I do not usually like cauiliflower and am a little concerned with using it as a potato substitute, but I am willing to try just about anything once. She hates it and is refusing to even try it. So now I am looking for the squash to use and am having a difficult time locating it. Are there other names for the squash that can act as a potato substitute?